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Waynesville rallies for victory over Nixa

ROGERSVILLE – Nine possessions, seven buckets from four different players and 16 points. You can’t ask for much better efficiency than that.

That run by No. 10 Waynesville helped erase a third-quarter deficit and sent the Tigers to a 61-57 victory over No. 7 Nixa in a battle of Class 5 powers in Rogersville on Tuesday night.

“We were trying to go inside-out, use (6-foot-8 junior Juwan) Morgan and dribble-penetrate,” Waynesville coach Chris Pilz said. “In the third quarter we were trying to score off the first drive. In the fourth quarter we tried to score off of two or three drives, not just the first one every time.”

It was a bucket by Cedric Williams that started the rally, but an electrifying follow-dunk by Morgan electrified the Waynesville squad and kicked the rally into high gear.

“Every time he gets a dunk he motivates us,” Waynesville guard Joe Johnson said. “We told him ‘Get a dunk, get a dunk.’ It was good that he did.”

A Jacob Ruder 3-pointer stemmed the tide for Nixa, but Williams responded with a jumper from the foul line and Johnson followed with a 3-pointer from the right wing that put the Tigers in front.

By the time Johnson, a sophomore guard, hit a layup in transition and buried another triple, the Waynesville lead was secure, at 54-44 with just over three minutes remaining.

Nixa rallied back and made a late run, getting as close as 57-54 with 31 seconds to play, but a pair of free throws by Johnson sealed with win for Waynesville, which improved to 11-1 on the season.

“We all just came together and worked as a team,” said Johnson, who finished with 20 points to lead all scorers. “Hard work pays off in the end.”

He would know. The 5-foot-9 sophomore put in loads of hard work after his freshman season.

“Joe’s got loads of confidence,” Pilz said. “He’s probably taken 50-60,000 shots since the end of last season. He took one that I didn’t like at the end of the third quarter, but for the most part he takes good ones. You’ve got to have one or two guys that can let it fly, and he can. He’s really good during winning time, those last four or five minutes of the ball game.”

Morgan scored 17 for the Tigers, who also got 12 from Kellieon Williams.

Wes Middleton paced a balanced Nixa attack with 14 points. Chase Allen had 12 and Ruder 11, as eight different Eagles played and scored.

But after bombing away from 3-point distance in the third quarter, Nixa (10-3) cooled off to open the fourth and couldn’t get the big bucket when they needed it.

“They run a nice little matchup zone,” Nixa coach Jay Osborne said. “They switch it up a little bit and guard you. They’ve got some good ballhandlers and some quickness that we really don’t have. This was a good ball game between two good teams. They were just a little bit better tonight.”

The game was played in Rogersville as part of a doubleheader. The host Wildcats beat Branson 58-39 in the second game. Both Nixa and Waynesville found themselves in need of an extra game this season and wanted to play each other on a neutral floor.